Monday, August 18, 2014

For Ben's 9th birthday, we decided we needed to do something fun as a family, since it was the end of the husband's block leave from deployment.

Thankfully, Ben's birthday is in the summertime and the outdoor options in Colorado are plentiful. After giving him a few choices, he decided he wanted to go whitewater rafting!

From the Springs where we live, we can go a little over an hour in one direction or two hours in another and find some great rafting areas. We chose to head up to Buena Vista to raft Browns Canyon which is part of the Arkansas River with Buffalo Joe's Whitewater Rafting.

Our kids have rafted before, but only as passengers in the boat, so this time, we wanted a trip where they were able to paddle too. Since Browns Canyon was a little cooler that day, we opted for wetsuits, booties and splash jackets, all available from Buffalo Joe's. We got a quick lesson from our guides and headed off to the river.

We had a raft for the four of us and our guide, which was perfect since the kids really wanted to paddle. Our guide gave Faith and Ben a few more lessons and we headed off into the river. The first part of the trip is relaxing--light paddling, a few itsy bitsy Cat1 rapids, and gorgeous scenery.

The second part was Ben's favorite, and that was where the Cat3 rapids started. Both kids absolutely loved it with the drops and the rapids! This part of the trip goes through approximately 9 major sets of rapids which was great for my little daredevils. They got soaked and stayed in the boat, so all in all, a perfect trip.

The pictures were a gift from Buffalo Joe's management to share on the blog, but each raft was able to see and purchase photos from their trip after returning to the main office.

Is this something your kids would love? We highly recommend it! We're all about living it up during our time in Colorado and rafting is a must-do event.

Please visit the website at www.buffalojoe.com or call 866-BUFF-JOE for more information about which trip would work best for your group!

This post was written as a part of my ongoing relationship with US Family Guide. Our family received a rafting tour in appreciation for this post, all opinions are my own.